News from the Library » Digital Collections

Pennsylvania Geological Survey Publications

Anne Huber — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:05:29 +0000

The Pennsylvania Bureau of Topographic and Geological Survey has streamlined access to their publications and digital data, making them available from one easy link. In addition, most of the publications from the Fourth Series have been scanned as free-text searchable Acrobat files and are now available for download online.

Theses and Dissertations Available Through New Open Access Tool

Laura B. — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:55:48 +0000

Open Access Theses and Dissertations is an index of over 1.5 million electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). To the extent possible, the index is limited to records of graduate-level theses that are freely available online.

The full text of all papers lives on the original hosting site, usually the repository of the university that granted the degree. OATD indexes about the first 30 pages of some theses in order to show search hits, but in no case does OATD index or store the full text of the paper.

The list of participating institutions is available at http://oatd.org/oatd-publishers.html and includes the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Reports on Surface Water Resources of Illinois Counties now available online

Susan Braxton — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:21:57 +0000

Reports on the surface water resources of the Illinois counties are now available online via Illinois Harvest. These reports were produced by the Illinois Department of Conservation, Division of Fisheries from 1968 – 1975. They provide an inventory of surface water resources at the time and their characteristics, uses, and problems. They drew heavily upon research produced by the State Scientific Surveys, which now comprise the Prairie Research Institute. Print copies are also available in the Prairie Research Institute Library and other University Library locations.

The digital collection contains 82 reports, and covers most Illinois counties, but is incomplete. We are seeking digitizable copies of reports for Cook, Clark, Franklin, Fulton, Grundy, Iroquois, LaSalle, Marion, Marshall, McLean, Peoria, Pike, Putnam, Union, Wabash, White, Will, Williamson, Woodford counties. If you have copies of reports for these counties which you are willing to loan or donate, please contact Susan Braxton.

US Topo – A new national map series

Anne Huber — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 19:32:22 +0000

Read this article for the latest news on the U.S. Geological Survey’s digital quadrangle map series, named US Topo.

Smithsonian Field Book Project

Susan Braxton — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:57:32 +0000

The Smithsonian Institution began “The Field Book Project” in 2010, funded by a Hidden Collections grant administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The goal of the project is to expose biodiversity field books and original expedition journals held by the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Archives.

Similar to the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Field Book Project aims to provide “one online location for scholars and others to visit when searching for field books and other field research materials.” As of September 2012, the team had cataloged 6,000 field books from the Smithsonian’s collection, and estimated that there are at least 8,000 in the collection. Digitization is in progress. The projected launch date for the online Field Book Registry will be early to mid 2013. Catalog records for the field books will be available through the Smithsonian’s collection search by December 31, 2012. To keep up to date on progress, follow the Field Book Project blog, and view spectacular images in the Field Book Project’s flickr sets.

The project has 6 external partners, including Harvard, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Missouri Botanical Garden. The project team is working with the Biodiversity Heritage Library and Biodiversity Information Standards Group (TDWG) to facilitate interoperability with other biodiversity information projects. A related project is Connecting Content from the California Academy of Sciences, which aims to connect field notes to museum specimens.

Information on the CLIR Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives program is available here.

Science.gov user survey

Susan Braxton — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 21:41:43 +0000

Science.gov searches more than 55 databases and 2100 selected websites from multiple federal agencies, including DOE, EPA, NASA, NIH, NSF, USDA, and USGS. It is an excellent resource for finding a wide variety of documents related to government conducted or funded scientific research. An interagency initiative first released in 2002, Science.gov 5.0 now offers features such as image searching, email or RSS search alerts, and clusters to help users refine searches.

Science.gov is currently conducting a user survey to gather feedback on the interface and results sets.

If you would like help using Science.gov or setting up alerts, contact your librarian!

National Climatic Data Center data access

Susan Braxton — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:01:11 +0000

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center has, as of February 13, 2012, made most publications and data available online at no charge to users through their Image and Publications System.

Free resources available include:

Local Climatological Data – Daily accounts of temperature extremes, degree days, precipitation amounts, winds, hourly precipitation amounts, and abbreviated 3-hourly weather observations from major airport weather stations. (NOTE: The edited version is still available on a paid subscriptions basis.)

Climatological Data – Daily maximum and minimum temperatures, precipitation, with some stations also providing daily snowfall, snow depth, evaporation, and soil temperature; monthly and annual summaries available.

Hourly Precipitation Data – Rain gage readings from National Weather Service, Federal Aviation Administration, and cooperative observer stations.

Storm Data – Monthly publication with chronological list of storms and “unusual weather phenomena” by state.

Visit the National Climatic Data Center Image and Publications System Page to see additional resources.

Wind ENergy Data & Information Gateway (WENDI)

Susan Braxton — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:04:37 +0000

Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the WENDI Gateway is an “integrated system for the archival, discovery, access, integration, and delivery of wind energy-related data and information.”

With an emphasis on wind energy-related spatial data, WindGIS includes wind power plant locations, wind resource assessment maps, electrical transmission lines, transportation infrastructure, ecological data layers, and more. The Metadata Clearinghouse features datasets, publications, applications, and websites.

WENDI was established in March 2010. A user survey to improve the gateway is in progress now. Visit the site and offer your feedback.

Boneyard Creek materials digitized

Susan Braxton — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:56:05 +0000

A small Boneyard Creek Collection has been added to the Illinois Harvest portal. Materials were selected from the Boneyard Creek Bibliography authored by Pat Gobert, a former Illinois State Water Survey Librarian. Materials from the bibliography not subject to copyright restrictions and not already available online were digitized by the University Library’s Digital Content Creation unit.

Among the items digitized for the Illinois Harvest Boneyard Creek Collection are:

Click the collection link above for the complete list.

More Boneyard Creek materials may be found by searching “Boneyard Creek” in IDEALS.

Technical Reports Archive and Image Library

Susan Braxton — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 15:07:52 +0000

The Technical Reports Archive and Image Library (TRAIL) is an initiative led by the University of Arizona in collaboration with the Center for Research Libraries and other interested agencies to identify, digitize, archive, and provide access to federal technical reports issued prior to 1975. Examples of agencies whose reports have been digitized thus far are the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, U.S. Bureau of Mines, and National Bureau of Standards.

The database may be searched by title, author, report number, agency, year, or document type. Access to the full text of digitized reports is free.